Quotes about want
page 44

“There. I've said everything I wanted to say without actually having to use the words "please stay”

Rachel Cohn (1968) American writer

Source: Nick & Norah's Infinite Playlist

“You could say anything you wanted to someone you thought you were never going to see again.”

Cassandra Clare book City of Glass

Source: City of Glass

“I had no idea what I wanted, only that I wanted something, which is the worst kind of wanting.”

David Levithan book Love Is the Higher Law

Source: Love Is the Higher Law

Idea

“People say to write about what you know. I'm here to tell you, no one wants to read that, cos you don't know anything. So write about something you don't know. And don't be scared, ever.”

Toni Morrison (1931–2019) American writer

People, Reading

“My wants are simple: a job that I like and a guy whom I love.”

Emily Giffin Something Borrowed

Source: Something Borrowed

Love, Guy

“How do I defeat Apophis?”
“I’m so glad you asked!” Thoth beamed at me with his multicolored eyes. “Unfortunately, I can’t tell you.”
I glanced at Walt. “Do you want to kill him, or should I?”

Rick Riordan book The Serpent's Shadow

Source: The Serpent's Shadow

“He threw in the towel before we were tested. Maybe because he didn't want to be tested. Maybe because he assumed we would fail. Maybe because, at the time, he just didn't love me enough.”

Emily Giffin (1972) American writer

Source: Love the One You're With

Love, Time

“I want to cut off her head and take out her heart.”

Bram Stoker book Dracula

Source: Dracula

Heart

“I want to urge you very strongly to travel as much as you can, and to evolve yourself as an internationalist. It's as important a part of your education as a radical as the reading of any book.”

Christopher Hitchens Letters to a Young Contrarian

Source: Letters to a Young Contrarian

Books, Education, Travel, Reading

“I'd finally come to understand what it had been: a yearning for a way out, when actually what I had wanted to find was a way in.”

Cheryl Strayed book Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail

Source: Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail

Way, Understanding

“Waitress!" Hedge called. "Six double espressos, and whatever these guys want. Put it on the girl's tab.”

Rick Riordan book The Lost Hero

Source: The Lost Hero

Guy, Girl

“But he does insist on a conversation. Goddamn it! Why can't people just do what I want them to do and be gone? It's a worldwide conspiracy to make me be polite when I don't want to be.”

Elizabeth Wurtzel (1967–2020) American author and journalist

People

“If you want something, you don't wait for the world to deal it out for you. You take it.”

Poppy Z. Brite Lost Souls

Source: Lost Souls

World, Waiting

“How lucky we are, when we're spared what we think we want!”

Lionel Shriver book We Need to Talk About Kevin

Source: We Need to Talk About Kevin

Thinking

“Christopher discovered that you dealt with obnoxious masters and most older boys the way you dealt with governesses: you quite politely told them the truth in the way they wanted to hear it, so that they thought they had won and left you in peace.”

Diana Wynne Jones book The Lives of Christopher Chant

Source: The Lives of Christopher Chant

Truth, Peace, Way, Boy

“I want to be as idle as I can, so that my soul may have time to grow.”

Elizabeth von Arnim (1866–1941) Australian writer

Source: The Solitary Summer

Soul, Time

“You don't want him for a reason. You want him because he's your father.”

Madeleine L'Engle (1918–2007) American writer

“You want to know how to paint a perfect painting? It's easy. Make yourself perfect and then just paint naturally.”

Robert M. Pirsig book Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance

Source: Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance: An Inquiry Into Values

Nature, Painting, Perfection

“We must look for consistency. Where there is a want of it we must suspect deception.”

Arthur Conan Doyle (1859–1930) Scottish physician and author

Source: The Casebook of Sherlock Holmes: Volume 1

“If you want me you're going to have to come and get me.”

Tiffanie DeBartolo (1970) American writer

Source: How to Kill a Rock Star

“He who wants a rose must respect her thorn.”

André Gide (1869–1951) French novelist and essayist

Wise

“This is exactly what i wanted, as commitments had never really been my thing. And it wasn't like it was hard, either. The only trick was never giving more than you were willing to lose.”

Sarah Dessen Lock and Key

Source: Lock and Key

“Keep me preoccupied
Keep me busy, busy, busy
So I won't have to think
I don't want to think
Because it only brings me pain
I just keep running away from
My problems
Keep me busy
Give me a million things to do
So I can keep running away from myself.”

Henry Rollins (1961) American singer-songwriter

Pain, Business, Problem, Thinking

“Looking at him now-even if she hadn't been in love with him, that part of her that was her mother's daugher, that loved every beautiful thing for its beauty alone, would still have wanted him.”

Cassandra Clare book City of Glass

Source: City of Glass

Love, Beauty, Parting

“There are things that have to be forgotten if you want to go on living.”

Jim Thompson book The Killer Inside Me

Source: The Killer Inside Me

“I had always felt that mittens were a few steps back on the evolutionary scale-- why, I wondered, would we want to make ourselves into a less agile version of lobster.”

David Levithan (1972) American author and editor

Source: Dash & Lily's Book of Dares

“Yesterday I did not want to be borrowed but this is the typewriter that sits before me and love is where yesterday is at.”

Anne Sexton (1928–1974) poet from the United States

Source: Love Poems

Love

“I want to help you to grow as beautiful as God meant you to be when He thought of you first.”

George MacDonald (1824–1905) Scottish journalist, novelist

God, Beauty, Help

“I want to make a memorial for our turkey. Never has a bird been so tortured to provide such a lousy dinner.”

Laurie Halse Anderson Speak

Source: Speak

Bird, Memory

“It's the wanting to know that makes us matter.”

Tom Stoppard Arcadia

Hannah, Act II.
Source: Arcadia (1993)

“The only thing they had in common was Calypso, and every time Leo thought about that he wanted to punch Percy in the face.”

Rick Riordan book The Blood of Olympus

Source: The Blood of Olympus

Time

“If you want to have a more pleasant, cooperative teenager, be a more understanding, emphatic, consistent, loving parent.”

Stephen R. Covey book The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People

Source: The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People: Powerful Lessons in Personal Change

Love, Understanding, Parent

“….. It means everything. It means I love you. It means I want you. It means I want you to be okay. It means everything.”

Diana Peterfreund (1979) American writer

Source: Rampant

Love

“I became a firefighter because I wanted to save people. But I should have been more specific. I should have named names.”

Jodi Picoult (1966) Author

People

“In all the institutions I try to be present and accountable for all I do and leave undone. I know that eventually I shall have to be present and accountable n the presence of God. I do not wish to be found wanting.”

Maya Angelou book Letter to My Daughter

Source: Letter to My Daughter

God

“Ah, it is the fault of our science that it wants to explain all; and if it explain not, then it says there is nothing to explain.”

Bram Stoker book Dracula

Source: Dracula

Science

“I know what you want. You want a story that won't surprise you. That will confirm what you already know.”

Yann Martel book Life of Pi

Source: Life of Pi (2001), Chapter 99, p. 336
Context: I know what you want. You want a story that won't surprise you. That will confirm what you already know. That won't make you see higher or further or differently. You want a flat story. An immobile story. You want dry, yeastless factuality.

“He wanted pure compliments, just as he wanted unconditional love.”

Alan Hollinghurst book The Line of Beauty

Source: The Line of Beauty

Love

“I’ve lived a long time,” Magnus said. “So many years, and no, it doesn’t feel like enough. I won’t lie and say it does. I want to live on—partly because of you, Alec. I have never wanted to live so much as I have these past few months, with you.”

Cassandra Clare book City of Heavenly Fire

Source: City of Heavenly Fire

Lie, Feeling, Time, Past

“Maryse: I am fighting for a better world for myself and my son.
Magnus: I have no interest in the world you want or in your doubteless repellent brat, I might add.”

Cassandra Clare (1973) American author

Source: The Last Stand of the New York Institute

World, Fight

“She wanted something to happen - something, anything: she did not know what.”

Kate Chopin (1850–1904) American author

“Art is dangerous. It is one of the attractions, when it ceases to be dangerous you don't want it.”

Anthony Burgess (1917–1993) English writer

Art

“How the hell do you think I feel?" I don't want to end up inside a woman!" He paused. "Well, at least not that way”

Karen Chance book Touch the Dark

Source: Touch the Dark

Way, Feeling, Hell, Thinking

“But Hale wasn't just a member of her crew who had messed up. He was Hale. Her Hale. And Kat just wanted him back.”

Ally Carter (1974) American writer

Source: Perfect Scoundrels

“If you really wanted to mess me up, you should have got to me earlier.”

Nick Hornby book High Fidelity

Source: High Fidelity

“If we're going to the Silent City, you might want to get dressed. I mean, I appreciate the bra-and-panties look, but I don't know if the Silent Brothers will. There are only a few of the left, and I don't want them to die of excitement.”

Cassandra Clare book City of Fallen Angels

Source: City of Fallen Angels

“Don't you understand that wanting does not belong here, because that is what wounds, and there is never an end to it.”

Isobelle Carmody book Greylands

Source: Greylands

Understanding

“Yeah.” Rhage sighed. “All I want is one good female. But I guess I’ll settle for quantity until I find her. Life just sucks, doesn’t it?”

Jessica Bird book Dark Lover

Source: Dark Lover

Life

“When he wanted, he could radiate charm and sincerity, but I often wonder in these later days if anything about him was as it seemed. I think now he was a man fighting constantly to escape the bars of an invisible cage.”

Frank Herbert book Dune

Source: Dune

Thinking, Fight, Sincerity

“For too many centuries women have been being muses to artists. I wanted to be the muse, I wanted to be the wife of the artist, but I was really trying to avoid the final issue — that I had to do the job myself.”

Anaïs Nin (1903–1977) writer of novels, short stories, and erotica

Women

“6. You want to help him.”

Bisco Hatori (1975) Japanese manga artist

Source: Ouran High School Host Club, Vol. 13

Help

“I was the girl he had chosen to kiss. He wanted, somehow to set me free. He didn't want to burn my photo or toss it away, but he didn't want to look at me anymore, either.”

Alice Sebold book The Lovely Bones

Source: The Lovely Bones

Photo, Girl, Kiss

“Sometimes I think all I want to find is a mean guy and make him be nice to me. Or maybe a nice guy who's a little bit mean to me. But they're usually too nice too soon or too mean too long.”

Carrie Fisher book Wishful Drinking

Source: Wishful Drinking

Guy, Thinking

“I did it to get what I want. Maybe I should regret that, but I can’t. Sometimes you do the bad thing and hope for the good result.”

Holly Black book Black Heart

Source: Black Heart

Hope

“Good sex isn’t just fun, it keeps us sane and happy. Having sex with someone makes us feel wanted, alive and potent”

Alain de Botton (1969) Swiss writer

Happiness, Sex, Feeling

“You want me to say something? Okay. Sometimes I think I am what you made me. And sometimes I don’t know who I am at all. And either way I’m not happy.”

Holly Black book Black Heart

Source: Black Heart

Happiness, Way, Thinking

“It was the kiss by which all the others of his life would be judged and found wanting.”

Stephen King book Hearts in Atlantis

Source: Hearts in Atlantis

Life, Kiss

“Be happy, honey. No
one deserves it more. But don't forget… I'm
keeping one little piece of your heart for myself.
And if you ever want it back… you know
where to find it.”

Lisa Kleypas (1964) American writer

Source: Sugar Daddy

Happiness, Heart, Forgetting

“What we all want, really, is to be loved. That craving drives our worst behavior.”

Jodi Picoult book Handle With Care

Source: Handle with Care

Love, Behavior

“I would want things to be different than they were. The wanting was a wilderness and I had to find my own way out of the woods.”

Cheryl Strayed book Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail

Source: Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail

Way

“Never do anything that you don’t want to have to explain to 9-1-1 personnel.”

Jill Shalvis (1963) American writer

Source: The Sweetest Thing

“when I hide something, it stays hid, until I want it found.”

Sara Shepard (1973) Author

“Every time someone puts an objection to me, I want to say: 'OK, OK, let's go on to something else.' Objections have never contributed anything.”

Gilles Deleuze (1925–1995) French philosopher

Time

“If you want something to be true badly enough, you can rewrite it that way, in your head. You can even start to believe it.”

Jodi Picoult (1966) Author

Source: Vanishing Acts

Way

“I sadly want a reform in the construction of children. Nature's only idea seems to be to make them machines for the production of incessant noise.”

Wilkie Collins book The Woman in White

Source: The Woman in White

Children, Idea, Nature

“You want meaning? Well, the meanings are out there. We're just so damn good at reading them wrong.”

David Levithan (1972) American author and editor

Source: Dash & Lily's Book of Dares

Reading

“Clever girl. You play with fire because you want to be burnt.”

Holly Black book The Coldest Girl in Coldtown

Source: The Coldest Girl in Coldtown

Girl

“I was the basest of readers. All I wanted was my own world, and myself in it, given back to me in artful shapes and accessible form.”

Ian McEwan book Sweet Tooth

Source: Sweet Tooth

World, Art

“I don't think everyone wants to create the great American novel, but we all have a dream of telling our stories-of realizing what we think, feel, and see before we die. Writing is a path to meet ourselves and become intimate.”

Natalie Goldberg (1948) American writer

Source: Writing Down the Bones: Freeing the Writer Within

Dreams, Feeling, Thinking

“I was starting to see that what looks like garbage from one angle might be art from another. Maybe it did take a crisis to get to know yourself; maybe you needed to get whacked hard by life before you understood what you wanted out of it.”

Jodi Picoult book Handle With Care

Variant: What looks like garbage from one angle might be art from another. Maybe ittake a crisis to get to know yourself; maybe you needed to get whacked hard by life before you understood what you wanted out of it.
Source: Handle with Care

Life, Art